Source documentsMedia Articles - 1990s

Last updated
3 December 2002

A request for a court order to allow Narconon Chilocco New Life Center to
remain open and continue treating patients should be rejected, according to
papers filed Wednesday (Jan 15) in Oklahoma County.

Narconon Chilocco should be shut down to comply with a Dec. 13 ruling by
the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services instead of
being allowed to remain open while lawyers for the facility appeal the board's
action, the documents said.

The papers were filed in Oklahoma County District Court by board lawyer George
S. Corbyn Jr., in response to Narconon Chilocco's motion seeking a stay.

District Judge Leamon Freeman is scheduled to rule on the matter Jan. 31.
Meanwhile, lawyers with the state attorney general's office have filed court
papers seeking to dismiss Narconon Chilocco's appeal in Oklahoma County District
Court.

Guy Hurst, an assistant state attorney general, said Narconon Chilocco filed
its appeal in the wrong county. The appeal should be filed in Kay County,
where the 75-bed facility is located.

Lawyers for Narconon Chilocco last week (also) filed (their) appeal in Kay
County District Court.

Narconon Chilocco lawyers have kept the facility open by going to court and
filing requests for a stay and asking a judge to over rule the mental health
board's decision.

The center, which had 27 patients when the board denied its application for
certification, now has 16.

Corbyn said Narconon Chilocco's request for a stay should be denied because
the facility, which has been accepting patients since February 1990, never
was licensed.

He and his law firm were hired by the mental health board after Narconon
Chilocco last year won a court ruling prohibiting the attorney general's office
from participating at that time in the case.

In its request for a stay, lawyers for Narconon Chilocco said mental health
board members did not use substantial evidence in denying the facility's request
for certification and were biased because of Narconon International's ties
with the Church of Scientology.